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A Mobile Therapy Unit

Like the very best hair stylist or massage therapist, Victor Yih has refined the subtlest of social skills—he knows when to talk to his clients and when it’s best to stay quiet.

As one of 33 volunteer drivers in the Canadian Cancer Society&rsquo;s transportation program, Victor Yih is responsible for driving cancer patients from communities in the South York region to their treatments in downtown Toronto. (Stephanie Lake for The Toronto Star)

“Every client has a different mood,” says Yih. “Some are very talkative. Other people don’t like to talk at all. I think it’s because they’re tired from the treatment — it’s a very stressful treatment.”

As one of 33 volunteer drivers in the Canadian Cancer Society’s transportation program, Yih is responsible for driving cancer patients from communities in the South York region to their treatments in downtown Toronto. Every Tuesday and Friday morning, he picks up one to three clients in his Chevrolet Uplander. While they receive treatment, which for radiation typically takes 90 minutes, Yih reads a book in the parking lot before driving them home again.

For patients like Philomena Swanson, Yih and his fellow drivers make receiving treatment a possibility. “My husband and I don’t know how we would have done this without them,” she says. Diagnosed with breast cancer, Swanson has made regular trips from her Markham home to Sunnybrook Hospital for the last nine months to receive radiation and chemotherapy treatments. However, Swanson doesn’t drive and her husband’s full-time job prevents him from driving her on a daily basis.

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Betsy Anderson, the transportation coordinator for the South York region, says that cases like Swanson’s are common. “This is a last resort for a lot of people. If they don’t use us then they can’t get treatment,” she says. Every three months, more than 110 cancer patients receive transportation from one of the South York region’s volunteer drivers. Clients that use the service may not have family nearby, may be elderly or unable to drive. Even for those who do have family support, the cost of parking at the hospital, which is up to $20 per day, may be prohibitively expensive — an added stressor for individuals who are already dealing with the financial implications of a serious illness.

The service is in such great demand that in the first half of 2012, the unit had to turn down up to 19 per cent of patients who requested the service. “We’re always looking for new drivers. We’d love to have a zero turndown rate,” says Anderson.

For clients who are going through treatment, the program offers something much more than just a ride to the hospital. With a wide range of experiences present in the vehicle — from those who may be going for their very first treatment to those who are going for a follow-up appointment — the cars act as a kind of mobile therapy unit.

“People have a camaraderie in the vehicles,” says Anderson. “I had someone tell me, ‘My family can obviously sympathize with me, but people in the car can really empathize because they’re all going through the same experience.’ ”

But on trips downtown, the conversations aren’t limited to treatments and health. Yih, 69, who worked with Air Canada as an aircraft maintenance technician for 31 years, likes to share stories with his passengers — everything from his travels to Panama to where to find the best dim sum — but only when they’re feeling up to it. Anderson says that patients regularly request Yih. “He will do anything for clients,” she says.

Swanson, for one, says that her husband always knows when Yih was her driver because she returns home happy. “I know this might sound a little weird — but I always feel like I’m going on a road trip. I never feel like I’m going for chemotherapy,” she says. “You might think of [Yih] being on the periphery, but he’s a huge part of what I experience when I get up in the morning to go for my chemo.”

For Yih, this is the greatest reward to volunteering — knowing that he’s reduced stress in the lives of people. “I think we’re living in a society where we’re taking care of each other because it comes and goes. That’s my conviction. Maybe one day I’ll need help, too — you never know when this kind of thing happens,” he says.

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